What children need now and when schools reopen

April 30, 2020

Public schools are playing a vital role in helping families through the current crisis and in the recovery period to come. The pandemic and school closures have made it clearer than ever that public schools are the center of our communities and our children’s education.

Although technology cannot replace a physical school, during closures, access to devices and internet are a necessity for connecting children and families to schools for academics and other services like counseling and speech therapy. Too many families are still lacking access weeks into the current closure.

Moreover, when our children can finally return to their public schools safely, they'll need:

small classes for both health and academic reasons;

facilities and schedules that accommodate health essentials like frequent hand-washing and outdoor play;

opportunities for the social and physical experiences they are missing out on during closures;

wraparound services needed to ameliorate the trauma of living through an unprecedented health and economic crisis;

drastically reduced time spent on standardized tests and elimination of high-stakes attached to test scores; and

compensatory services for students with disabilities who have missed out on required services during closures.